Nebraska Football Coach Analysis
Before the beginning of the 21st century, Nebraska Football was highly regarded as one of the best teams in the country year in and year out. Many people say that Tom Osborne retiring or Frank Solich’s scandals put a curse on the team. I think it is much more simple than that. By using data to compare the coaches, we can see that there may not be a ‘curse’ after all.
The scatterplot to the right shows where each coach stands when comparing wins and tenure with the team. Coaches with a green dot have a win percentage greater than 0.500, while the red dot denotes coaches with a win percentage less than 0.500. The single yellow dot corresponds with a win percentage of exactly 0.500.
Tips: Hover over the data-points to receive additional data. If points are too clustered, zoom in or use the legend to select which kind of points you want to see.
All data was gathered from Sports Reference.
For the rest of the analysis, only some of the most prominent coaches in Nebraska Football history will be selected.
The two most commonly referred to polls in College Football are the Associated Press (AP) poll and the Coaches’ Poll. While the two have been mostly consistent throughout history, there are a few cases of multiple champions in a single year because of a poll split. The data and poll used here is from the Associated Press.
The NCAA has more information about the polls and how they work.
Tip: To see more detail, zoom in on a single coaches violin plot.
All data was gathered from Sports Reference.
When a player is named a National All-American selection, it means that player displayed themselves at an elite level on and off the field. Even though Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney have an advantage in this stat due to their lengthy stay with the program, the fact that the rest of the coaches are lacking so much tells us Tom and Bob were on a whole different level of player development and influence.
All data was gathered from Sports Reference.
Passing the ball is one of just two ways to move down the field while keeping possession of the football. With passing making up half of an offenses potential, you may expect really great coached teams to have some high passing stats.
It may be a surprise to see Tom Osborne or Bob Devaney at the bottom of the list, while coaches like Bill Callahan and Scott Frost (widely considered terrible coaches) sit at the top of the list. Does this mean that Tom Osborne was a worse coach than Scott Frost? The answer is no, and we can see why with the next visualizations.
All data was gathered from Sports Reference.
If you are familiar with pre-2004 Nebraska Football, then only one word means more to you than Blackshirts, and that is the Fullback. Nebraska Football used to have a smash-mouth identity. The offense was known for being stronger and working harder than the opposing defense. That raw strength was shown through running the football effectively.
Since 2004, Nebraska has tried the west-coast, multiple, and spread-option offensive systems. These systems relied more heavily on the passing game than Tom Osborne’s read-option system.
If Nebraska Football wants to get repeat past success, perhaps shifting the offensive identity back to the running game will break the ‘curse’.
All data was gathered from Sports Reference.
This choropleth map shows how many wins Nebraska has against teams from each state. Nebraska Football has played in many different conferences over their 133 years of existence (as of 4/12/23).
Up until the last 10-15 years, the conferences were heavily influenced by geography. More recently, Nebraska has been placed into a conference with teams from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Pending 2024, two teams from California will be in the same conference as Nebraska.
There are also 2-3 out of conference games scheduled each year. Sometimes, Nebraska will play a series of games with a non-conference opponent in consecutive years.
Can you guess which states teams from the Big Eight Conference are from?
Hint: Nebraska was in the Big Eight from 1957-1995, by far the longest of any conference Nebraska has been a part of.
Answer: Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma
All data was gathered from Sports Reference.